The Race Card

Oh how I used to love using the race card. For those not familiar with it, the race card is when you use your minority status to rationalize a specific situation and bring in the fact that your a minority to your advantage. I'll give you an example of one that I used in High school.

The scene is this: we're in the auditorium waiting for the speaker and while we wait my friends and I are talking loud. Substitute teacher walks to our row and tells us to be quite. A few more minutes go by and we're still loud and she walks over again and tells us to shut up or else. At this point the speaker starts his speech and there I am being all loud (a minority begin loud when they shouldn't be? Not likely right?). At this point the teacher walks over by me tells me to go outside so she can have a word with me, and this is the conversation:

Me "what's up?" (trying to act like I don't know why I'm outside with the teacher)

Sub "I told you three times to be quiet and you didn't listen. You are going to get a suspension"

Me "what? Are you kidding me?"

Sub "No, I'm serious and you're going to the principal's office right now"

Me "Oh I see what's going on here."

Sub "what's that."

Me "let's put two and two together. There I am with my friends, white friends mind you, talkin loud, you just don't tell me to be quiet, if I recall you told all of us to be quite. Then for some weird reason I'M the one that gets suspended. I think you did this because I'm Hispanic."

Sub "WHAT? No that's not accurate."

Me "I'll tell you what's accurate, that out of a whole group of people I'M the ONE that gets singled out. You know I've experienced this before so I know it when I see it"

Sub "look (she says this in a calm voice and very sweet) why don't we just leave it at this. You were loud with your friends and you were the last one to be loud. I understand how you feel and what this may look like. Why don't we forget this whole problem and you go back inside, be quiet and we'll forget about that suspension."

Me "just so you know, I hope that what just happened here wasn't what I think it was."

As you can tell, I didn't get the suspension, I didn't see the principal and the sub and I were friends happily everafter. You gotta know when to use the race card and who to use it with.

Here is the goldnugget: The race card is good to have up your sleeve but you have to know when and who to use it against.

After the above mentioned episode I got over confident and used it with an experienced teacher. The result was quite different. When I tried turning it around with the race card her response was
"Well if that's how you feel then tell that to the principal when you see him. And if you think that everything is about race then you are going to loose most of the time."

That time I got the suspension, got that meeting with the principal and got a whoopen at home for getting suspended.